Feral Child
by ChibiNekoJimmy
Summary: Ashitaka's father works at a research centre, where San is taken after being recovered from the wilderness. Ashitaka is set the task of teaching her to speak and other things beside that. AXS
1. Chapter 1

The girl panted desperately, not able to find a way out of the thicket she'd gotten into, except for directly into their hands. Her flat bone earrings clicked against the necklace of her 'father's' fangs.

"There she is!" one of them shouted. Her trained ears told her they were coming in from the same direction as she had. She had very highly attuned sense for a girl of seventeen, and very fast reflexes. She had dodged most of the bullets the humans had shot at her.

She turned and used a final resort. She leaped for the trunk of the nearest tree and dug her strong nails into the bark. She pulled herself up the tree, but slowly, not fast enough. The nails on her right hand snapped at the ends and she swung to her left as the humans came into the clearing. She lost all grip on the tree and dropped to the floor her body reflexively twisted so as she landed on her feet.

She turned to face the humans, pulling her clay mask over her face. Drawing her spear, she took up fighting stance, feet slightly apart, muscles all tensed.

She hopped nervously to look at them all, turning to the last too slowly. He pulled the trigger, and the dart pierced the skin on her neck. She collapsed to the floor, but not before delivering a swift kick to the nearest man. Her body hit the floor with a soft 'thump' muffled by the fur of her 'mother'.

* * *

Ashitaka Kodama watched his father and the other research facility employees bring the girl back into Irontown. He couldn't see her face; it was covered by a red mask made of an earthy material.

Her name was San Mononoke. She was the wolf princess. She was the third of three children, giving her the name San (meaning three), and princess of the forest and beasts. Mononoke Hime. Her parents lost her to the wolves when she was very young. Instead of killing and eating her, they brought her up as their own. Very odd behaviour for wolves, said the experts.

They'd named to wolves. Moro was the mother. The father died before San was found, so he was unnamed. The wolf twins were called the Moro No Ko, sons of Moro, because it was impossible to distinguish between them.

The research team, consisting of 6 people, pulled the doors of the ambulance open and pulled out the stretcher. As soon as the wheels touched the floor they were near running into the building. A slight moan came from the stretcher and reached Ashitaka's ears. He followed the men inside at his father's beckon.

Half way down one of the labyrinthine corridors, the men pushing the stretchers stopped.

A feral growl erupted from the girl, and she sprung up, kicking two men in the face in the process. They fell onto the men behind them, taking another two out.

She danced across the fifth man and flipped over Ashitaka's father, before trying to escape down the corridor. That was where her escape route stopped. She ran directly into Ashitaka, who caught her around the waist. Her momentum knocked them to the floor, her face mask snagging on the way down. She pulled the top half of her body off of his, and looked at him. For a moment, their eyes met.

_She's beautiful_ thought Ashitaka. She had light skin, short brown hair and triangles painted on her face in a red ink.

She immediately flipped off of him and onto her feet when she heard a noise behind them.

Another gun was pulled out and a dart fired at the princess of the wolves. She fell soundlessly onto Ashitaka.

"What was that about?" asked Ashitaka as he pushed San off of him. His father looked at him.

"This is San Mononoke, 'Princess' of the wolves. It was our task to find her and see what makes a feral child tick. She doesn't know how to speak, so there's no point in talking to her. We thought that you might be interested in a job, Ashitaka."

Ashitaka nearly dropped the wolf girl in surprise.

"Get her," he said, motioning to San, "to talk."

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helloooooooooo CNJ here! First ficcy!

Review if you have the time.

Much Love! Ja Ne


	2. Not Easy

Heyho! I'm Jimmy, writer of this crappy story...am sposed to be tidying my room, but i'm here updating for people to read...yay! Enjoy!

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Ashitaka laid San on the bed, and the assistants strapped her into four shackles, atthe wrists and ankles. She twitched and growled in her drug induced sleep, but she didn't awaken as rapidly as the last time.

Ashitaka reached up to push the mask off of her face completely, but a small growl erupted from San's prone figure before he could complete the motion. Ashitaka's father brought a bundle of material into the examination room where San was being held, and laid it out. Inside there were flints, stone daggers and a small metal dagger carved with the same patterns as the ones on San's face.

"How am I supposed to get her to talk? She's probably never said a word in her life!" Ashitaka sighed.

"I'll leave methods up to you Ashitaka," said his father grinning.

Ashitaka sighed and looked back at the girl on the bed, wondering how he was ever going to get her to talk to him.

San fought her way through layers of grey sleep and drugged senses. The first thing the struck her was sound. It was so loud. She knew she wasn't in the forest anymore. The forest had a peaceful, calming sound, except when the humans came. They were loud and ignorant, destroying everything in their path, not caring if it had a life of it's own to live. This place was full of human noises. The metal machines that went any where, their 'cars', their noisy contraptions that kept the air cool, and the machine next to her that beeped loudly every so often.

The next thing that hit her was the smell. It assaulted her senses, and made her screw her nose up against it. It was so artificial and wrong. The air was full of scents that made her grit her teeth.

She opened her eyes, but had to blink a few times before she could see anything clearly. The room San was in was poorly lit, and her eyes took a minute to adapt. When she could see, she noticed she was lying down, facing a tiled ceiling, and when she tried to sit up, she noticed her hands and feet were tied down. By instinct, she pulled against the shackles and arched her back against the bed. It was no use. They were fastened well.

San lay back down and frowned.

The door to the room opened, and two humans walked in. One was older than the other and his hair was turning grey. The younger one looked to San like he was the same age as her.

They started speaking to her, or about her, but she just frowned. The sounds they made meant nothing to her.

"San? Can you hear me? My name is Ashitaka," said the younger one. She looked away from him when she didn't understand, but he tried to capture her attention.

"Hello? Do you understand me?" asked the older one.

"It's useless," said Ashitaka. "She doesn't understand us, and so she's not interested. It's not going to be easy, if it is possible."

The girl in the bed began to growl, and make primitive, feral noises, combining them with motions of her hands, which weren't able to move far.

San looked up at Ashitaka rather pitifully and motioned her head towards her hands. Before he had a chance to think about his own actions, he'd undone one of the shackles on her wrist. Big mistake.

She lashed out at him, swinging her arm into his face. He stumbled backwards as she moved to hit him again. She snarled and used her free hand to beat at the restraint on the other one. She obviously didn't realise there was a catch on them, and continued to beat at the shackle. She growled something, and moved her lips to manipulate the noise. It sounded like she was saying "Moro", the name of her wolf mother, over and over as she beat at her restraint.

As she raised her hand to beat the restraint again, Ashitaka caught it and she looked at him wide eyed with fear.

She flung her head forwards and clamped her teeth down on his hand. Ashitaka bit down on his lip, whimpering against the pain. He tried to pull his hand away, but San bit down harder.

Ashitaka's father pulled out a bottle of sedative and a syringe. He plunged the needle into the foil lid of the bottle and pulled out the liquid. He walked surprisingly calmly to the other side of the bed, and pushed the needle into the main vein in San's arm.

She visibly flinched, but it had the desired effect. She released her teeth from Ashitaka's hand (which was bleeding fairly heavily) and swiped at the needle. Ashitaka's father pulled away in time, and she hit thin air.

She scratched feverishly at her arm for a couple of seconds, before her actions grew steadily more lethargic.

There was silence for a moment, before Ashitaka said "This is not going to be easy."


	3. Learning

Hello! CNJ here. In response to a review I got, yes it is in modern times (see sedatives and other technical devices) and i wanna thank everyone who gave me a review. Thankyou! Throws underwear at reviwers

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The spoon hit the wall; the soup that had been sitting in it was spattered across the floor and walls. San screamed at Ashitaka again, her throat feeling raw.

She had one hand free of the shackles that still bound her to the bed. Ashitaka was trying to feed her as she wouldn't do it herself, but to absolutely no avail. He had a growing bruise on his cheek from where she'd punched him earlier in the morning while he was trying to speak to her.

_This is going to be difficult…but I think I can do it…_he thought as he wiped the soup off of his face.

He looked up at San, to see her looking at him with a questionable expression on her face, as if she were saying _what now?_

"Listen, can you understand me?" he asked her, rather abruptly.

She blinked steadily at him, her gaze fairly blank. He took her hand and looked at her. Imitating something he'd seen on a film a while ago, he brought her hand to his chest.

"A-shi-ta-ka," he said, enunciating each syllable carefully. He took her hand again and placed it on her chest, between her breasts and said carefully "San."

She blinked carefully as he let go of her hand, before looking at it carefully. She flipped her hand over, and then looked back at Ashitaka. She raised her hand, and hesitantly placed it on his chest.

"Ashi-taka," she said slowly, before taking her hand and putting it on her own chest. "San," she whispered.

_Yes!_ thought Ashitaka. That was until San pointed at the bowl of soup, and asked "Ashitaka?"

The last of the soup dripped off of his nose as Ashitaka sighed. He wasn't getting very far. After Ashitaka tried to tell San that the soup didn't share the same name, she got confused, then angry, then distressed which lead to her throwing the bowl of soup onto Ashitaka, folding her arms and turned away from him.

The research team noticed that her behaviour was steadily becoming more human, but she was still finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with anyone, or pick up too many new words. She knew her name, 'Ashitaka', 'Moro' and, for some reason, 'carrot'.

For Ashitaka it was nearing the end of the school holidays, and he would have to get back to the regular routine of school. He spent most of his days with San, trying to break through her shell of intolerance towards other humans, or her inability to understand.

She didn't communicate to anyone other than Ashitaka, and if anyone tried to talk to her, she would turn as far away as she could from them. When Ashitaka spoke to her, he would address her and make her look at him.

They discovered this was the only way to get her to communicate, but no one else dared to try, because the moment they made eye contact with her, she felt intimidated and would begin to snarl and growl at them.

Two weeks after she was brought to the centre, San was beginning to string words into sentences. They were rather primitive, but it was an improvement.

"San?" Ashitaka asked, looking at her directly. "I'm going away for a while, okay? But I'll be back soon. Is that okay with you?" he asked her gently. He spoke slowly to her, posing questions so as he could get her opinion, see what she wanted.

"Is…Ashitaka going to…leave San?" she asked, in her broken dialect. She brought one of her hands, which had both been released from the shackles, to his face and placed her hand on his nose. She did this quite often, especially when she was upset.

"Only for a little while each day. I'll come and visit you in the evening. Is that okay?" he asked again.

"Why can't San…go…to Ashitaka?" she asked, stumbling over her words.

"San can't go _with_ Ashitaka because there are a lot of people there, who you don't know. And you could get lost," he explained. He gently corrected her phrasing, by emphasising the word she had gotten wrong.

She growled harshly at him and swung out her hand to hit him in the arm. He caught her fist just before she hit him.

"If San wants to come to school with Ashitaka," he said calmly, "She has to learn not to hit."

San looked confused.


End file.
